Sir Alex still sees a bright future for McInnes
SIR Alex Ferguson has backed Derek McInnes to make a swift return to topflight management. McInnes left Aberdeen last week after eight years at the helm but Sir Alex, who led the club to domestic and European glory in the 1980s, said: ‘Derek is a top-class, experienced manager who still has the energy of youth. He is capable of taking on a big job. If I was asked for a reference for him, I would gladly supply it.’
Ferguson, who won three league titles and the European Cup Winners’ Cup for Aberdeen, believes the reality of modern football means those glory days will never be repeated.
‘The gulf in finance between Aberdeen and Rangers and Celtic is huge,’ he said. ‘It is unbridgeable. There is a gap that never existed back in my day.’
Ferguson, who left Aberdeen in 1986 to launch Manchester United to unprecedented triumphs, believes that the Dons also suffer now from Rangers and Celtic sweeping up so many youngsters in the central belt.
He said: ‘In my day, we had Willie Miller, Alex McLeish and Stewart Kennedy and others coming from the West of Scotland and the central belt to play for Aberdeen.
‘They stayed and helped bring through the youngsters such as Neil Simpson and Neale Cooper. It’s different today.’
Sir Alex insisted that McInnes had been a fine manager for Aberdeen.
He said: ‘Derek consistently took the club into Europe and to domestic finals, where he inevitably met a Celtic team in their pomp.
‘He will be remembered, though, for winning silverware in the shape of the League Cup in 2014. It is tough to win trophies and Derek achieved that. He is only 49 and has still much to offer.’
The man who took United to two Champions Leagues and 13 league titles looks back on his career in Scotland with clear eyes.
The 79-year-old said: ‘You reflect on what Aberdeen did and what Dundee United achieved under the great Jim McLean and you think that can never happen again because of the financial constraints.’
He added: ‘But that does not diminish the achievements of Derek at Pittodrie. He can leave with his head held high and he will make a significant contribution to the success of another club.’
Meanwhile, Aberdeen caretaker boss Paul Sheerin has revealed that he is not putting himself forward for taking the job on a permanent basis.
Sheerin will take charge of his first game tomorrow when Aberdeen face Dundee United.
The 46-year-old will be assisted by Simpson and Barry Robson following the departure of McInnes and his No 2 Tony Docherty.
The former Arbroath boss, who was brought to Pittodrie as Under-20s coach in 2014, has no intention of throwing his hat in the ring.
‘None whatsoever,’ he said.’I’m not part of that process and as it stands I don’t intend to be in the near future. I am more than happy to help out the club.
‘I know that will be resultsbased. If I win the game on Saturday, who knows? In terms of my mindset and the club’s mindset, it may alter that. ‘But I’m more than happy just to help out and not put pressure on both the team or myself to win the game. I just want to relax going into the game and do all we can to pick up three points.’ Dons chairman Dave Cormack this week offered no set timeframe for the the club’s recruitment process.
‘Until the end of the season was spoken about but we also recognise there’s a process ongoing and that could change at any time,’ said Sheerin. ‘So we just take it a game at a time and do as we are asked’
The ex-Inverness and St Johnstone man feels the players are ready to take on United at Tannadice following their initial shock at the managerial change.
‘Initially it was pretty subdued,’ he said of the mood in the camp. ‘Everybody felt it, the gaffer and Doc having been a big part of most of our careers both as players and coaches over the past eight years.
‘Slowly we have tried to drag them out of that a bit and hopefully come Saturday they will be ready to go and do all we can to get a result.
‘There was probably a sense of shock that it happened so quickly but the nature of the beast is they need to dig in and show a bit of professional pride.
‘We were probably fortunate we never had a game last weekend, the dust has been able to settle a little.
‘We started afresh on Monday and now it’s just a case of concentrating on Saturday and I think we have been able to do that this week.’
Aberdeen could have striker Fraser Hornby back from injury but there will be no wholesale changes as they look to get their campaign back on track.
‘I have worked with the manager and Doc now for seven years,’ added Sheerin.
‘We have been striving for the last five or six weeks to turn things round, to score goals, and we will continue trying to do that.
‘Certainly we have known what we have had to work on and we have been working on that for the last few weeks. Nothing changes with that, we know exactly what we need to do.’